Often Irreverent, Mostly Rational Blog for Fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. One Day, We'll Be Perfect.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

The struggles begin

Even though we're (yeah - we) in the midst of a (re)building year, losing plain sucks. Especially against shitballers like Joe Saunders, who prior to today's contest couldn't get anyone out. Cue the manager's patented "mail it in Saturday" lineup (much like this post - heyo!), featuring both Jose Molina and Johnny Mac. Both good dudes and defensive wizards to be sure, but those two bats should never, ever, appear on the same starting lineup card. In defence of Clarence, he's not exactly dealing with a full stack of reserves. Get healthy, Aaron Hill and hurry on back, E5.

The shittacular starting 9 aside, what I continue to find disconcerting and amazing all at once is the ongoing praise for Brian Tallet and his work in the rotation. Let me make one thing clear - I'm a big Tallet fan. In the right role. And to me, that role is long man capable of chewing up multiple innings out of the bullpen. The praise he receives for essentially being a bad starting pitcher is beyond me. It's like the Jays broadcast crew (and management) go out of their way to praise Tallet for taking his lumps and going five or six innings.

I'd rather all involved were just honest and admit that Tallet's job as a starter is a function of protecting the confidence of young arms who would otherwise be taking the ball. Better to beat on the veteran than the youngsters, I guess.

No matter, Brett Cecil will be forcing his way into the big league rotation soon enough. Speaking of which.....

14 comments:

You're bang on about Tallet. It's ridiculous that they give him props for being a terrible pitcher. He's keeping a seat warm, that's it. And those are some good numbers. Hopefully R-Zep can do the same when he gets healthy.

I was in Cleveland last week when there were 10,071 in the crowd; smallest Progressive Field crowd ever. It was incredibly absurd to read that article. The irony in him writing about the joy of going to Cleveland, after they set their new "record," was clearly lost. And Cleveland? Better than Toronto? Seriously? Cleveland? Credibility, gone. Whatever there was to begin with.

Yesterdays roster waspure clusterfuck. How the Beest and. AA can leave the senile old fuck behind the bench is beyond me. The saddest part about this whole thing is that this team could be competitive. I mean not AL east champ competitive but entertaining competitive. It's almost as though it's been decided that to improve next years draft we are being forced to deal with the senile old fool. And this is supposed to be his victory lap, the old fuck will be lucky if he doesn't get a baseball in the back of the head as a parting gift. Fuck this team is frustrating.

AA's biggest failure was to not get an innings eater when Doc was tarded. If you want to protect the young arms get a pitcher that can go 7 innings at a pop. I like Tallet as a reliever and he belongs in that role not as a starter. Hopefully next year they can obtain such a pitcher when they have money coming off the books.

Jays have made some pitchers look like Cy Young this week. Danks, Weaver and Saunders tore through the homesiders with little resistance. Santana gets a turn today, will he be the next to have a one hitter through seven? He's been as terrible as Cowboy Joe Saunders. Leaky pen not helping matters either.

The notion of Lewis strengthening the bench is laughable to me. Cito plays most games like he doesn't even have a bench. What difference does it make?

Yeah, I think I'm finally starting to understand what they meant when they kept referring to Brian "5.2 IP per start" Tallet as an "innings eater" -- it has nothing to do with the actual number of innings the guy can pitch, it's just that they don't mind keeping him out there when he's getting lit up because nobody gives a shit about Brian Tallet's confidence. Seems like an odd way to go about things, but hopefully Tallet will make his way back to the bullpen soon. He'd better be the guy to go when Cecil is brought up.

Also, does anyone else get the feeling that maybe they're exaggerating the extent of E5's injury a bit to get the bench guys some actual playing time, so that they can actually have a basis for deciding who to send down when Hill gets back on Friday?

Honestly, I never intended to shit on Tallet with this post. I just think he's being used all wrong. He could be a valuable guy, but the Jays seem to link his value to "saving" other arms. Doesn't seem fair to Tallet.

I'm not sure who goes down. Honestly, the way Cito uses the pen, is there a need to keep that extra arm in relief? Accardo and Valdez are just wasting away out there. Carlson will be recalled any day now also...

That's exactly what I was trying to hit on, Ack. It's like calling him an "innings eater" is their justification for throwing him to the wolves in a role he's not best-suited for, and when he gets hard they can act like he gave them exactly what they wanted. It's a cheap way to make people feel like his shitty performance as a starter is somehow commendable while also making most people forget what a valuable asset he was as a long reliever.

I have a feeling that the reason we haven’t seen Overbay either sit or move down in the line-up is because this is a little payback from the skipper for Lyle complaining about his lack of playing time last season. I have seen the idea suggested across the blogosphere that Overbay was one of the leaders of last year’s “players’ mutiny” against Gaston, but I haven’t seen it written by anyone who had access to actually speak to Lyle. It’s not true. He wasn’t happy, but he wasn’t one of the vocal mutineers. Still, he did complain about being platooned (I would have too, if I were being platooned with Kevin Millar) so I think Cito might be sending him out there, day after day, in an important spot in the line-up as he struggles so badly, as if to say - “You wanted to play every day? Fill your boots, son. And keep filling them no matter how much you embarrass yourself by looking up and seeing a batting average of .080.” In a couple of weeks, or maybe in a month, Cito will be able to say that he gave Overbay a fair chance to play every day and he didn’t take advantage, and at that point we should start to see Ruiz more often.